Aeroflot Airlines plans to transfer another batch of flights to the new Sheremetyevo-1 (B) domestic terminal starting in early August. This time, these are long-haul flights to the Far East, reports Travel.ru.
Currently, the transfer affects three destinations: Khabarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Boeing 777 aircraft are used for these routes during the summer. All of them will be served from Sheremetyevo-1 (B) starting August 1. The two remaining Far Eastern destinations—Magadan and Vladivostok—are currently listed as operating from the existing Sheremetyevo-3 (D) terminal. This is likely because the Magadan route is fully and the Vladivostok route is partially served by Airbus A330 aircraft.
As a reminder, between May and July, all flights to Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Abakan, Yakutsk, Saratov, Voronezh, Stavropol, Belgorod, Syktyvkar, Magnitogorsk, and Saransk were fully transferred to the new terminal, as well as select flights to St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Mineralnye Vody, Kazan, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Ufa, Orenburg, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Arkhangelsk, Nizhnekamsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Surgut, and Simferopol. All flights that have already been transferred are operated exclusively on Boeing 737-800 or Superjet 100 aircraft.
Flights operated by Airbus aircraft of all models will remain in the old terminal for now. The schedule for the transfer of Airbus flights to the new terminal is not yet known. The transition of domestic flights is expected to be fully completed by the end of October, when the summer to winter schedule changes.
As a reminder, there are several ways to reach the new Sheremetyevo Terminal 1 (B), which replaced the old terminal of the same name. First, there's the new underground shuttle from the existing terminals and the Aeroexpress station. Second, there's bus 851 along Leningradskoye and Sheremetyevskoye Highways, or bus 817 and minibuses 949 and 948 along Leningradskoye and Mezhdunarodnoye Highways via the other terminals. Third, there's buses or minibuses 21 and 48 from Lobnya station. Since June 30, bus 817 has reopened the "Police" stop—from here, you can reach Terminal 1 (B) via the multi-story parking garage and overpass.
Passengers on these flights should allow additional time both for travel to and from the airport (in most cases) and for connecting flights other than those also departing from the new Sheremetyevo-1 (B). The time required to connect to other domestic flights will typically increase by approximately 10-20 minutes, the same as the underground shuttle ride from Sheremetyevo-2 to the old domestic sector. The transfer time to and from international flights will depend on the terminal and may remain the same in some cases, while in others it will increase by approximately 5-10 minutes. Aeroflot currently officially allows for connections of 60 minutes within the new terminal and 90 minutes when changing terminals.
It's also worth noting that last week, baggage transfer issues arose during transfers involving terminal changes. According to TASS, the cause was flooding in the new baggage transfer tunnel between Sheremetyevo-1 (B) and the airport's southern terminals. As a result, many passengers are receiving their baggage at their destination with a delay of a day or more. If these issues persist, passengers with a significant amount of time to spare on their transfers may want to check their baggage only to Moscow, then collect their baggage upon arrival at Sheremetyevo and transport it to the other terminal themselves to be checked in for their second flight.
Following a strange tradition, Aeroflot continues to refrain from publicly announcing the transfer of the next batch of flights, or the procedure and timing of the transfer. While the company does inform passengers who have previously purchased tickets individually, there is no guarantee that all of them will receive these notifications.
As a reminder, the terminal's launch was previously announced only at the last minute, with only four days remaining before the switchover, all of which were weekends. Furthermore, both the airline and the airport ignored the issue of subsequent flight relocations altogether. It's possible that some passengers won't be informed of the switchover in time and may end up arriving at the wrong terminal.
Source: travel.ru